My Grandfather Story - Lan Kaigan (蓝恺干)
One of the first things I discovered about my grandfather was that he was a hero during the Japanese Occupation and was executed for being a leader in an anti-Japanese society.
He along with thirty other men, who mainly migrated from Dabu (Guangdong, China) had been held in prison for over a year and tortured before being officially charged.
“Early in the morning, we were all taken there - to the military court. It was like a small hall, there were chairs there for us to sit. Then the Japanese pronounced the judgement. We couldn’t understand Japanese, only Lan Kaigan (蓝恺干) could understand Japanese.
On 15 July 1945, they stood accused at Kempeitai (Japanese Military Police) Military Tribunal. Only one man understood the court proceedings because it was all conducted in Japanese.
My grandfather studied engineering in Japan before the war, so he understood the language. When the verdict was announced, he had to explain to the other 30 men that he along with ten of them had been sentenced to death. The other 20 men were sentenced to an average of 15 years of imprisonment.
According to the charges, the anti-Japanese society was chiefly run by the Lam (蓝) family, who were in the process of expanding the society’s membership to the thousands:
The anti-Japanese society was led by Lan Jinggan 蓝兢干, with Lan Jiahua 蓝甲华 and He Gongda 何公达 as consultants.
The society had three departments: intelligence, firearms and destruction. Lan Kaigan 蓝恺干 (my grandfather) was the director of intelligence, and Liao Shuangyan 廖双燕 was the director of firearms. The director of destruction was unidentified and was on the run.
The society was commissioned by a contact in Perak, Malaysia who provided the funding in British pounds. The contact received the money from the British who delivered a British military submarine in the Pacific Ocean.
As a business man, Lan Jinggan 蓝兢干 would travel to and from Perek to Singapore, on those trips he would carry radio communication parts to his cousin Lan Kaigan 蓝恺干, money to pay for the operations in Singapore and firearms which were passed to Lan Jiahua 蓝甲华and Liao Shuangyan 廖双燕 and kept at the home of Lan Naibin 蓝迺宾.
Members of the firearms department had rockets. Members of the destruction department had guns and bombs. However, those were all thrown into the sea to eliminate the evidence.
Lan Kaigan 蓝恺干 was also charged with printing and distributing anti-Japanese propaganda.
Eleven men were charged and sentenced to death on 15 July, 1945.
- Lan Jinggan 蓝兢干
- Lan Kaigan 蓝恺干
- Lan Jiahua 蓝甲华
- Liao Shuangyan 廖双燕
- Lan Zhenlin 蓝镇霖
- Zhong Shaobai 钟少白
- Chen Yaoguang 陈耀光
- Tan Yaming 谭亚明
- Three Malay men
On the same day, there were twenty others who were sentenced to an average of 15 years of imprisonment.
- He Gongda 何公达
- Lan Zhenlin 蓝镇霖
- Lan Naifu 蓝迺福
- Lan Dinggan 蓝鼎干
- Lan Lingan 蓝麟干
- Luo Jian 罗建
- Luo Chongqing 罗重庆 (died while serving his sentence)
- Lan Naibin 蓝迺宾 (beaten to death with wife before trial)
- Lan Damei 蓝大美
- Lan Hongxiu 蓝洪修
- Lan Baoxiu 蓝保修
- Lan Weihan 蓝维翰 (died of illness while imprisoned)
- Lan Huanwei 蓝焕伟
- Wu Chengke 邬成科
- Liu Rixin 刘日新
- Zeng Zhenchun 曾振春
- Ou Boyao 欧柏尧
- Lin Daosheng 林道生
- Lan Youfu 蓝有富
- He Zuqiang 何祖强
Two months later, the Allied forces landed in Singapore on 5 September, 1945, so those serving their sentences were released as political prisoners on 7 September 1945.
The above is an adaption of the oral testimonies by:
- Lan Zhaisheng 蓝再生 as recorded in an Oral History document “The Suffering of Dabu Compatriots Under the Japanese Occupation of Malaya” from Char Yong (Dabu) Association in Malaysia.
- Lam Thye Mee (Lan Damei) 蓝大美
- Lan Khong Kon 蓝强干
